Browns' D is killing them

Steve Doerschuk

Tuesday

Sep 25, 2007 at 12:01 AMSep 25, 2007 at 1:27 PM

You give up 34 points in the opener, you’re working out the bugs. You get smoked for 45 by the Bengals in Game 2, it’s a Carson Palmer thing -- and so what? You won. You give up 396 yards and lose, 26-24, to the Raiders, you’re out of excuses. You accept that your defense is wrecking your season. Or, if you're Kamerion Wimbley, you don’t.

You give up 34 points in the opener, you’re working out the bugs. You get smoked for 45 by the Bengals in Game 2, it’s a Carson Palmer thing -- and so what? You won.

You give up 396 yards and lose, 26-24, to the Raiders, you’re out of excuses. You accept that your defense is wrecking your season.

Or, if you're Kamerion Wimbley, you don’t.

“We can get it turned around,” said Wimbley, who had the Browns’ only two sacks Sunday. 'We just have to be consistent. There are times we get ’em stopped for a loss but don't follow it up.

“Overall we can improve. There's no doubt in my mind we will improve.”

This game, though, was as bad as the first two for the defense, given the opponent.

The Browns made Oakland look like the Indianapolis Colts. At least, they allowed 396 yards -- Peyton Manning's juggernaut is averaging 398.3.

For the year, the Browns are giving up a staggering 430.7 yards a game. Only the Bills (458.3) are worse. Pittsburgh leads the AFC North and is second in the league at 244.3.

Head Coach Romeo Crennel, whose New England defenses won three Super Bowls, was disgusted.

“No matter what front we seemed to be in, they were running through us like we were out of position.”

Sunday’s collapse was disconcerting because it came against a struggling franchise using a starting quarterback whose life is getting booed.

The Browns sorely needed a late stop. With Oakland about to give up the ball, leading 23-17 and facing fourth-and-23, LaMont Jordan took a dump pass 27 yards.

That set up a 48-yard Sebastian Janikowski field goal -- and a 26-17 lead -- with eight minutes left.

The Browns quickly scored to make it 26-24 with 3:33 left.

The defense had one last chance to redeem itself on a third-and-9 with 2:36 left.

Daunte Culpepper had time to loft a sideline pass to Jerry Porter, who beat Leigh Bodden for the decisive first down.

“I didn’t get my eyes up in time,” Bodden said. “If I had, I’d probably have made that play.”

That first down enabled the Raiders to run three more plays and then punt the ball to the Cleveland 9 with 1:04 left. The offense turned it into a thriller, with completions of 33 and 23 yards to Kellen Winslow Jr., and 13 yards to Joe Jurevicius, setting up a blocked field goal.

“Maybe if I would have gotten to the quarterback before some other completions,” Wimbley said, “it wouldn¹t have ended this way.”

The Browns faced Josh McCown in the first half (6-of-12, 108 yards) and Culpepper in the second (8-of-14, 118 yards).

“(Culpepper) didn’t do anything special,” Bodden said. “I didn’t see the difference between him and McCown. That really wasn’t an issue.”

The issue: The Raiders rushed for 186 yards and kept popping 20-yard gains.

Jordan rushed for 121 yards.

"Our plan was to build a wall against LaMont,” Wimbley said. “He’s a great running back who’s doing very well this year, and we didn’t execute our plan.”